Il nuovo film di Scorsese,Leo DiCaprio fa record Dice 569 volte «fuck»

Cinquecentosessantanove sfumature di «fuck». Il nuovo film di Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street, in Italia dal 23 gennaio) ha già battuto un record, mai così tante volte il termine, in tutte le sue declinazioni, era stato ripetuto: 569 variazioni di «fuck» in 179 minuti, che fa una ogni 20 secondi, per la precisione 3,18 al minuto. Considerando che qua e là non si parla, che ci sono intermezzi musicali, il film è anche un lungo flusso di quell’espressione nazionalpopolare americana che in Italia preferiamo nella forma della doppia zeta. DiCaprio & soci staccano nettamente S.O.S. Summer of Sam - Panico a New York (1999) dove Spike Lee si era fermato a 435 (media 3,06). Sull’ultimo gradino del podio, alla voce cinema & parolacce,Niente per bocca (1997) di Gary Oldman con 428 (media 3,34, fonte Wikipedia). In verità il primo posto spetterebbe al lungometraggio Fuck, che come dice il titolo ruota intorno al significato della parola in questione, ma si tratta di un documentario, non di un film. Per la statistica comunque il termine ricorre per 857 volte in 93 minuti (media siderale di 9,21).

La classifica dei film in cui ricorre la parola «fuck»

Ma a scandalizzare la platea di gran parte del mondo di cultura non occidentale non è solo il linguaggio verbale ma anche quello visivo. Il film è l’adattamento cinematografico dell’omonimo libro autobiografico di Jordan Belfort (interpretato da un DiCaprio strepitoso), uno dei broker di maggior successo nella storia di Wall Street, grazie a un modus operandi tanto cinico e illegale quanto efficace. Belfort è un teorico delle tre «esse» (soldi, sesso e stupefacenti) così il film è anche una lunga sequenza di scene di sesso (in molte variazioni: orge etero e gay, masturbazione, sesso orale, sadomaso, con prostitute e non) e droga (anche qua in parecchie sfumature: crack, cocaina, morfina, e quaalude, il farmaco preferito da Jordan Belfort, pasticche di metaqualone con azione allo stesso tempo sedativa-ipnotica e euforica).

CENSURE E TAGLI - Così, come riferisce Hollywood Reporter, Malesia e Nepal hanno deciso di vietare del tutto il film. A Singapore lo può vedere solo chi ha più di 21 anni. Negli Emirati Arabi hanno accettato (nel senso di tagliato con l’accetta) 45 minuti ritenuti troppo forti. In India sono state bannate l’orgia gay, una masturbazione pubblica, la scena in cui DiCaprio sniffa cocaina dal lato B di una prostituta, la frase «si sa, tutte le suore sono lesbiche» per rispetto della religione. In Libano niente scene di sesso gay. Ma anche negli Stati Uniti Scorsese si è visto limare qualcosa: i frame in cui DiCaprio si fa sfilare una candela accesa dal suo muscolo di appoggio (il suoderrière insomma) è stata ritenuta poco opportuna. La censura italiana, molto più libertina, invece ha apprezzato.

Corriere della Sera

Putin’s Rearguard Battle

Russia's diplomatic "victories" in Syria and Iran, compounded by Obama's Administration foreign policy missteps,have emboldened  Vladimir Putin as to make him believe that Russia can challenge US supremacy
as the only dominant Superpower of the world.
"To be sure, with America exhausted from its fruitless wars in the Middle East, and Europe turning inward as it faces its own crises, the case for a multipolar discourse is more convincing today than at any other time since the Cold War. But this does not change the fact that Russia is a declining power, whose diplomatic triumphs are mere tactical achievements that do not add up to a strategic game changer for the world"
Putin era can be "reduced to nuclear weapons and oil extraction". "In all other areas, the West retains a clear advantage: Russia’s demographic decline, antiquated military forces, one-dimensional economy, low productivity, and chronic internal unrest dwarf the challenges faced by the US and Europe"

 In fact, Putin’s recent address was replete with references to Russia’s weaknesses – specifically, “interethnic tensions,” local-government authorities “constantly shaken by corruption scandals,” an incompetent administration, capital flight through economic “offshore activity,” and the inability to achieve “technology breakthroughs.” These traits certainly are not the makings of a dominant power in a globalized world. Like it or not, talk of Russia competing with the West is nothing more than sentimental nostalgia or meaningless rhetoric.

 For Putin, the agreement reached at the Yalta Conference  is not dead; its limits on the Kremlin’s influence have simply shifted eastward, essentially to the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. While Putin managed to stop Georgia from joining NATO, his Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) is a poor replica of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), which included all of the countries of the Eastern Bloc and a few other socialist states. Likewise, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Russia-led Eurasian defense alliance, is a far cry from the old Warsaw Pact.

But the most serious threat to Russia’s global status is the coming obsolescence of its nuclear arsenal. Putin has been unable to counter America’s development of "prompt global strike" which would render Russia’s nuclear deterrent irrelevant, by enabling the United States to hit targets worldwide with conventional weapons within an hour. Russia is no more able to compete with Western technology and capabilities today than the Soviet Union was when it collapsed under the stress of its arms race with the US.

 In his address to the Federal Assembly, Putin positioned himself as a defender of conservative values against “tolerance, neutered and barren” (a euphemism for gay rights) and a champion of morality and traditional family values. Russia might not be a superpower anymore; but, according to Putin, it represents a morally superior civilization battling America’s foreign-policy recklessness, malevolent economic practices, and moral depravity.

Putin’s moral claims are, however, mired in politically unsustainable contradictions. “Today, many nations,” he warned, “are revising their moral values and ethical norms, eroding ethnic traditions and differences between peoples and cultures.” But Russia is a kaleidoscope of ethnicities and cultures, whose efforts to assert themselves were dismissed in the very same address as the criminal behavior of “ethnic mafias.”

For all of his grandstanding, Putin’s ambitions are not new. Indeed, he represents a continuation of Russia’s centuries-old drive to be treated as a great power in a world order that it views as a Hobbesian struggle of all against all. But authoritarianism and ham-fisted diplomacy are not exactly a recipe for success in the twenty-first century.

Source:  Project Syndicate Org. by Shlomo Ben-Ami

49 million Alipay Users Have Contributed to Mutual Fund Yuebao. WeChat Adds A Me-too One.

When WeChat stealthily launched a Yuebao clone, named Licaibao (means a powerful tool for financial management) a couple of days ago, Alipay announced that 49 million Alipay users had contributed 250 billion yuan (roughly $41 bn) to the mutual fund Yuebao as of January 15.

The mutual fund that shows returns daily and can be withdrawn anytime for online shopping became an immediate hitin China’s financial industry and Internet industry in 2013. And it is growing increasingly fast that added 6 million users and saw 35% increase in total amount of contributions in the first 15 days of this year.

At the end of 2013, THFund became the second biggest mutual fund company in terms of the total assets under management. Now Alibaba, the controlling shareholder of the mutual fund company, claims THFund has become the largest only half a month after 2013.

After the launch of Yuebao, a dozen of similar funds emerged. But most of them are just online mutual funds and don’t have advantages Alibaba has; for instance, average risk aware users sign up to Yuebao for their money can be taken back anytime for shopping. Also, the majority of Chinese users have Alipay accounts that it takes only one click to transfer balance in their accounts into Yuebao.

It is believed the only potential competitor in near future is WeChat which has had payment capability and has integrated services from its parent company Tencent, such as the online retailer Yixun. Also Tencent has invested in online financial services or companies such as HOWbuy.

Source: TechNode

Watch out, Baidu: Qihoo aims at 35% share of China’s search engine market by end of year

Chinese software maker Qihoo(NE:QIHU)exploded into the search engine market in the summer of 2012, and managed to garner 10 percent market share in China in just a couple of week thanks to its popular PC web browser . At the end of 2013, Qihoo had clawed its way up to 22.5% share  Of course, it doesn’t intend to stop there.

Qihoo president Qi Xiangdong said last week, according to the Chengdu Evening News , that the company is aiming to reach 35 percent market share by the end of 2014.

Qi says that Qihoo now has 24 percent share, though the CNZZ data that we prefer to look at pegs the company’s So.com search engine at precisely 22.5 percent

It’s not clear what strategies Qihoo has for that , but it’s a threat to market leader Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), whose own share of the pie has crumbled away as Qihoo’s has expanded.

A few weeks ago we analyzed how search engineshaveshifted in China in 2013,   and our graph shows clearly that Qihoo could indeed hit 35 percent if it grows as quickly this year as it did last year:

Source: TECHINASIA

Rawlemon's beautiful, spherical solar energy generators

Source: Gizmag

Despite their noble cause of harnessing clean, renewable energy from the sun, solar panels tend to be aesthetically uninspiring. Solar start-up Rawlemon aims to change all that with a new, and undeniably beautiful, take on concentrated photovoltaic  (CPV) technology.

Created by Andre Broessel, a German architect inspired by his daughter’s toy marbles, the Rawlemon design uses a spherical lens to concentrate sunlight on a small photovoltaic panel and combines this with a dual-axis pivot that tracks the movement of the sun.

According to the designer the transparent sphere is able collect and concentrate diffuse where traditional devices cannot and as well as providing an efficiency boost, they can be used in far more locations than their flat, fixed counterparts. It's also claimed that by concentrating the sun’s light in one area, the Rawlemon design reduces the solar cell surface required to just 1 percent of that required by a traditional panel.

Rawlemon aims to bring a range of devices to market starting with the 10-cm (3.9-in) Beta.ey S phone charger, which it is currently the subject of anIndiegogo campaign. The funds raised are earmarked for the production and certification of the Beta.ey S. The charger is compatible with any phone that uses a USB 2.0 charging port and has a battery storage capacity of 27.5 Whr.

As well as a Bet.ey S Special Edition and a Beta.ey XL designed for charging tablets, Rawlemon has some larger devices in its portfolio. The 100-cm (39.4-in) Beta.ray 1.0 will generate up to 1.1 kWh a day, which is enough to run a laptop for about two days. It has a 1.8 kWh battery.

The largest device in the Rawlemon range is the 180-cm (70.1-in) Beta.ray 1.8 that will generate up to 3.4 kWh a day, enough to run your laptop for almost a week. It has a 5.4 kWh battery. Both the Beta.ray 1.0 and 1.8 feature water-filled acrylic-polymer lenses, as opposed to the solid lenses of their smaller siblings, plus they generate thermal energy as well as solar.

Rawlemon is also developing a system it calls Microtrack, that uses the same technology but is installed as a building skin. Microtrack will will produce energy during the day and can be used as a multimedia display at night.

Beta.ey is planned for release later this year and will be followed by the Beta.ray next year. Rawlemon estimates that the Microtrack system will take three years to bring to market.

    

Copper Drops as Economic Growth Slows in Leading Consumer China

Copper fell in London after economic growth slowed in China, the world’s biggest consumer of the metal. Nickel slumped the most in four months.

Gross domestic product expanded 7.7 percent from a year earlier in 2013’s final quarter, China’s statistics bureau said today, against 7.8 percent in the previous period. Industrial output weakened last month from November, separate data showed. China’s economic growth will decelerate to 7.4 percent this year, according to a Bloomberg survey last month.

“Data show that China’s growth momentum is weakening,” RBC Capital Markets Ltd. said in a report. “Gains in the country’s benchmark money-market rate ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays also weighed on sentiment.”

Copper for delivery in three months dropped 0.4 percent to $7,313 a metric ton by 1:26 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Copper for delivery in March fell 0.2 percent to $3.339 a pound on the Comex in New York.

China’s seven-day repurchase rate, a gauge of interbank funding availability, jumped the most in seven months as demand for cash spiked before national holidays starting Jan. 31.

Copper stockpiles monitored by the LME, at the lowest in a year, fell 0.4 percent to 334,550 tons, daily data showed. Orders to take the metal from warehouses dropped 0.7 percent to 190,900 tons, the lowest since May 9.

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators cut their net-long position in Comex copper to 25,664 futures and options contracts in the week ended Jan. 14, according to U.S. government data. That “still represents a high level, historically speaking,” Daniel Briesemannn, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, said by e-mail.

Nickel for delivery in three months on the LME dropped 1.3 percent to $14,500 a ton after slumping as much as 2.6 percent, the most since Sept. 20. Prices gained 6 percent last week, the most since Feb. 1, as Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of mined nickel, banned exports of unprocessed ores.

“The increase in the nickel price in the wake of the ore-export ban in Indonesia was excessive,” Briesemann said.

Aluminum and tin declined in London. Zinc and lead rose.

Source: Bloomberg

Tech Bubble 2.0 In Cloud And Social Networking Stocks?

As shown in the following table, the total return of the technology sector has underperformed the total return of the S&P 500 index in each of the past four years.

Total Return	2013	2012	2011	2010
Vanguard Information Technology ETF	30.95%	14.00%	0.53%	12.67%
S&P 500	32.39%	16.00%	2.11%	15.06%

Given the overall underperformance by the technology sector, we are clearly not in any kind of Technology Bubble. However, within the technology sector high growth, disruptive new publicly traded companies in the areas of cloud software and social networking have shown very strong stock returns. The strong returns have led to valuations that are very high in the post Tech Bubble era. The following table shows a subset of these strong stock performers within the cloud software and social networks sectors.

Company	Ticker	Trailing One Year Stock Return	Current Valuation EV/Trailing Sales
FireEye	FEYE	83%**	49x
Splunk	SPLK	150%	29x
Twitter	TWTR	41%*	58x
Workday	WDAY	100%	36x

* - Twitter's return reflects using the closing price on its IPO on November 7th 2013.

** - FireEye's return reflects using closing price on its IPO on September 20th 2013.

The absolute high levels of EV/Sales multiples for FireEye, Splunk, Twitter and Workday raises the question whether such high valuations can be justified and can these stocks offer a favorable return over the next 3-5 years at such valuations even if these companies grow at "best in class" rates. I believe one relevant historical exercise worth examining in helping answer these questions is how "best in class" disruptive enterprise software and Internet companies were valued during equivalent growth periods and what kind of returns did investors generate if they bought such companies at the same valuations we are seeing today for FireEye, Splunk, Twitter and Workday.

In looking at the post Tech Bubble era, the two "best in class" enterprise software companies one should look at are Salesforce.com and VMware, as these were the two companies in this era that were able to grow annual sales from $200 million to $1 billion in the shortest time, namely 3 years for VMware and about 3.5 years for Salesforce.com. Most other enterprise software companies have typically taken 6 to 11 years to achieve the same growth goal. Industry giant Oracle was also able to grow sales from $200 million to $1 billion in about 3.5 years when it was at that size back in the late 1980s. In the Internet sector in the post Tech Bubble era, Google and Facebook are the two companies to look at in evaluating Twitter's valuation at its current stage of growth. Given Twitter's trailing reported one-year sales are in the order of $500 million, its "best in class" peers were able to grow from about $500 million in trailing sales to $6 billion in trailing sales on the order of 3 to 4 years.

The following table shows the historical respective valuation ranges and peak for both CRM and VMW as the companies were growing towards the $1 billion in annual sales. Note that for VMW, the company went public in the same year it reached $1 billion in annual sales (i.e. 2007), thus, there is a limited amount of data to evaluate. CRM on the other hand, went public at a similar level of revenues as the current class of disruptive, enterprise cloud software companies and provides a more thorough historical analysis.

Company	Peak Valuation EV/Sales	Trailing Revenues at Peak Valuation	MCAP At Peak Valuation	Max. Stock Correction In Growing to $1B Revs.	Current Valuation EV/Sales	Current MCAP
CRM	16x Jan 2006	~$300M	~$4.5B	45%	10x	$36B
VMW	41x Oct 2007	~$1.1B	~$47B	80%	7x	$42B

As the table shows, VMW reached a peak valuation of 41x EV/Trailing Sales as the company was breaking over the $1B in trailing sales level while CRM's much lower peak valuation of 16x EV/Trailing sales was achieved when the company was generating about $300 million in annual sales. If one bought VMW stock at the peak valuation in October 2007 at $117/share, you would still be underwater given the stock is currently trading at around $98. On the other hand, if you bought CRM at its peak valuation in January of 2006 at about $10.40/share as it was still growing towards $1 billion in annual sales, you would still have generated a phenomenal annual return of about 24.5%/year in the stock as it is currently trading at around $60 share. While your return would have been great, you still would have experienced a correction on the order of 45% in the stock price prior to CRM ultimately reaching $1 billion in annual sales. Thus, the longer-term return in CRM was very strong, but there were many corrections along the way, one of which was as high as 45%.

Using this historical analysis, let's look at the current new class of disruptive, high growth, cloud based enterprise software companies that are striving to also grow from $200 million in annual sales to $1 billion at the same rate as the prior generational disruptive software companies Oracle, Salesforce.com and VMware. As the following table shows, FireEye (cloud based advanced malware security), Splunk (big data analytics software) and Workday (cloud based human resources and financial management software) are trading at high valuations more reminiscent of where VMW peaked on an EV/Trailing Sales basis and much higher than the historical peak valuation of CRM. While it is possible that all three of these companies may replicate the $200 million to $1 billion sales trajectory of VMW, ORCL and CRM, the current high valuations and stock corrections we witnessed for VMW and CRM in the past decade suggest there may be better buying opportunities in the future. I for one am waiting for such corrections before adding to my positions.

Company	Current EV/Sales Valuation	Current MCAP	Trailing 1 Year Revenues
FEYE	49x	$8.7B	$136M
SPLK	29x	$8.5B	$268M
WDAY	36x	$16.1B	$409M

In the Internet/Social Networking sector, the recent IPOs of disruptive and high growth companies Facebook and Twitter also suggest a look back at Google's phenomenal stock history, is worth a look in determining proper entry points from a valuation standpoint. As seen from the following table, if you purchased GOOG at its peak valuation back in late December 2005, you would have generated an annual return of about 13% a year, a decent but not phenomenal annual return. While a decent annual return, Google corrected 27% shortly after reaching this peak valuation in early 2006, demonstrating the risk in buying even great companies at historically high valuations.

Facebook today has very similar metrics to Google at that time in that its trailing revenues, market capitalization and valuation are similar. FB is currently trading at about 19x trailing EV/Sales, which is lower than the peak valuation that Google achieved in late 2005 at 23x trailing EV/Sales. We all remember, however, the massive correction that FB experienced after its IPO on the order of 50%.

TWTR today is trading on the order of 68x trailing EV/Sales, which is a much higher multiple than the peak multiple of either GOOG or FB. The comparison may not be completely comparable, as Twitter has generated only $534M in trailing sales vs. the $6B-$7B that Google and Facebook achieved when they reached their peak valuations. The fact that Twitter went public at a much earlier stage than FB or GOOG, makes the comparison difficult. Even so, one can look at the data and conclude that TWTR could trade at about 20x trailing sales once the company gets to about $6B-$7B in trailing sales if it shows the same growth profile as GOOG and FB. If for example, TWTR can get to $6 billion in sales in the next 4 years, consistent with the growth of GOOG and FB in the past, the company could have a MCAP of about $120 billion at that time reflecting an annual stock return of 20%-25% a year adjusting for expected dilution of stock options over that period. GOOG and FB have demonstrated the ability to monetize advertising revenues from their business models. If TWTR can do the same, then stock is not expensive here. But much like GOOG and FB, corrections on the order of 25% may occur and it may be better to wait for better valuation multiples in the future.

Company	Trailing Sales At Peak Valuation	Historical Peak Valuation EV/Sales	MCAP At Peak Valuation	Current Valuation	Current MCAP
GOOG	~$6B Dec 2005	23x	$125B	5.8x	$384B
FB	~$7B Jan 2014	19x	$139B	19x	$139B
TWTR	$534M Dec 2013	68x	$40B	58x	$34B

Source: Seeking Alpha

China’s 2013 economic growth dodges 14-year low

China's economy narrowly missed expectations for growth to hit 14-year lows in 2013, though some economists say a cool-down will be inevitable this year as officials and investors hunker down for difficult reforms.

The chance that the world's second-largest economy may decelerate in coming months was underscored on Monday by data that showed growth in investment and factory output flagged in the final months of last year.

Waning momentum capped China's annual economic growth at a six-month low of 7.7 percent in the October-December quarter, a slowdown some analysts say may deepen this year as China endures the short-term pain of revamping its growth model for the long-term good.

Full-year growth in 2013 was 7.7 percent, steady from 2012 and just slightly above market expectations for a 7.6 percent expansion, which would have been the slowest since 1999.

"It's like a Chinese medicine," said Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank in Shanghai.

"If you don't take it, you may have problems in future. But if you take it now, you cannot expect to regain your youth tomorrow."

After 30 years of sizzling double-digit economic growth that lifted many millions of Chinese out of poverty but also devastated the environment, China wants to change tack by embracing sustainable and higher-quality development instead.

That means reducing government intervention to allow financial markets to have a bigger say in allocating resources, and promoting domestic consumption at the expense of investment and exports.

Monday's data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's 56.9 trillion yuan economy is still very much dependent on investment for growth.

Capital formation accounted for 54 percent of China's economic growth last year, exceeding the 50 percent share taken up by consumption. Net exports, on the other hand, detracted 4.4 percent from overall growth.

"I don't see any evidence of a rebalancing last year," said Tim Condon, an economist at ING in Singapore.

Yet there are signs Beijing wants to rein in investment.

For the whole of 2013, China's fixed-asset investment climbed 19.6 percent, the smallest increase in at least 10 years and a tick below forecasts for a 19.8 percent rise.

Ambitious investment by local Chinese governments that have racked up some $3-trillion worth of debt has been at the forefront of China's investment drive in recent years, a trend that must be checked, said Ma Jiantang, head of China's statistics bureau.

"In 2014, I believe reforms will continue to be a key driving forces for economic growth," Ma said on Monday.

To be sure, the gentle fall-off in growth is welcomed by most experts as a must-have in China as it transits to better-quality development.

If growth continues to ease in a controlled manner, China's government can impose some difficult changes without worrying about a spike in job losses that will stir social discord.

It will also give Beijing the latitude to keep monetary policy stable this year, as most economists expect it will likely do, even as regulators continue to crack down on riskier lending, the fallout from which is unnerving some stock market investors.

"On the whole, the Chinese economy is performing well through its adjustment phase," said Brian Jackson, chief China economist at IHS Global Insight.

Concerns that China may sacrifice too much growth in its bid to enact change are also unfounded, Jackson said.

Though an average of the 2014 growth targets already issued by 22 of China's 31 local governments shows growth has been revised downwards by nearly a percentage point, large provinces that are China's commercial centres have mostly kept their growth targets stable, he said.

Still, there is little doubt China's economy is losing steam.

Factory output growth fell to a five-month low of 9.7 percent in December from a year earlier as factories struggled with lukewarm demand at home and abroad.

Indeed, a Reuters visit to southern China this month showed many factories in China's manufacturing heartlands have closed earlier than usual this year for the nation's biggest holiday, discouraged by weak orders and rising costs.

Other indicators also pointed to muted activity.

China's steel output dropped for the third consecutive month in December, while oil consumption rose at its slowest rate in five years in 2013. China is the world's second-largest oil user.

That said, a minority of analysts are predicting China's economy may speed up this year, confounding a prevalent belief that growth will slacken to make room for reforms.

Deutsche Bank expects China's growth to accelerate to 8.6 percent this year while RBS thinks it may climb to 8.2 percent.

"We expect China to benefit from improved global growth this year," said Louis Kuijs, an economist at RBS in Hong Kong.

China has yet to announce its economic growth target for 2014 but most analysts agree that the fruits of reforms, if reforms are to succeed, are unlikely to juice the Chinese growth engine any time soon.

Sources with top think-tanks have told Reuters that the government will likely stick with its 7.5 percent economic growth target again in 2014.

"Reforms won't produce results overnight." said Xu Hongcai, a senior economist at China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, a think-tank.

Source: bnn.ca

Buy physical gold and avoid paper: CME Trader. Follow the money.

Gold recovered slightly on Friday, but suffered its first weekly drop in a month after a mixed bag of U.S. economic data. With spot gold trading near $1,240 US, veteran trader Tres Knippa says investors should consider accumulating physical gold to take advantage of a delivery squeeze.

Pointing to recent Comex futures data, Knippa says there may not be enough gold to go around if everyone with a futures contract insists on taking delivery of physical bullion. He believes gold shot through $1,900 in 2011 before plunging last year because of an explosion in the amount of gold futures contracts – setting up separate markets for “real” and “paper” gold.

“Maybe the reason gold prices went up is an expansion of that multiple of the amount of paper gold versus real gold,” Knippa tells BNN. “So maybe the market has come back down as the people who are holding the paper gold start to liquidate it.”

“But the underlying story here is that the people acquiring physical gold appear to be continuing to do that. And that’s what I think is important,” Knippa adds, noting large investors like hedge fund manager Kyle Bass are taking delivery of the gold they're buying.

U.S. gold futures for February delivery rose slightly to $1,243.20 an ounce in early Friday trading. Knippa says he would buy physical gold in yen as opposed to U.S. dollars to take advantage of the Bank of Japan’s plan to increase the money supply.

“That is a trade that I think somebody could have on literally ten years, put it in a drawer and pull it out ten years later,” Knippa says. “I think the yen has nowhere to go but down.”

Source: bnn.ca

Magnetic nanosponges more effective at soaking up spills

A new type of carbon nanotube (CNT) sponge that contains sulfur and iron has been developed and is proving to be more effective at soaking up water contaminants, such as oil, fertilizers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals, than previously seen. The magnetic properties of these nanosponges also make them easier to retrieve from the environment once the clean-up job is done.

Gizmag first reported on the development of reusable,oil absorbing sponges created by adding boron to carbon back in April 2012. The new approach, being pioneered by researchers at the University of Roma, the University of Nantes and the University of L’Aquila, instead uses sulfur and iron to increase size, porosity and the magnetic properties of the sponges.

According to the Institute of Physics (IOP), the researchers found that by adding sulfur during the CNT production process, the average size of the sponges could be increased to around 2 cm (0.8 in). The nanosponges also gained porosity as beneficial defects occurred in the structure. This porosity has a threefold advantage; it creates buoyancy, makes the material sponge-like and reusable, and allows for the addition of iron in the spaces created. By adding iron, in the form of ferrocene, the structure is easier to control and can be recovered from the environment using magnets.

"It is quite tricky using CNT powders to remove oil spilled in the ocean," says Luca Camilli, lead author of the research from the University of Roma. "They are hard to handle and can eventually get lost or dispersed in the ocean after they are released. However, millimeter- or centimeter-scale CNTs, as we’ve synthesized in this study, are much easier to handle. They float on water because of their porous structure and, once saturated with oil, can be easily removed. By simply squeezing them and releasing the oil, they can then be re-used.”

The researchers say these nanosponges were shown to remove the toxic organic solvent dichlorobenzene from water more effectively than previous methods, absorbing a mass 3.5 times greater than previously seen. The sponges are also capable of absorbing vegetable oil up to 150 times their initial weight and can absorb engine oil more effectively than previously possible.

"The improved absorption properties of the sponge are down to the porous structure and the rough surface of the CNTs," says Camilli. "Oils or solvent can easily be absorbed in the empty spaces amongst the CNTs, which is made easier by the rough surfaces."

The team will now look to improve the synthesis process to make it possible to produce the sponges on a commercial scale. Camilli says the toxicity of the sponges will need to be studied before they can be put to use in real-world applications.

The results of the team's study are published in the journal Nanotechnology.

Source: Institute of Physics

Goldcorp, Yamana Gold offer less risk among miners, Barclays says

• Finding safety in gold miners  seems like an oxymoron these days, but Barclays believes some in the group offer “downside protection" if the price of gold doesn’t fluctuate too much in 2014.
• Barclays believes reduced volatility in gold prices will allow for more certainty in making investment decisions regarding gold equities, which should benefit the sector  given it is broadly under-owned; also, North American producers are poised to reduce operating costs on average vs. 2013, which should increase producers’ operating leverage to the gold price.
• When capital begins to flow back into the sector, the firm thinks some investors will favor gold companies that offer protection from lower gold prices or leverage to flat gold prices.
• Barclays names Goldcorp  and Yamana Gold  as companies with strong production growth, falling costs, declining capital obligations and less debt than competitors.

     Source: Seeking Alpha

Global Markets: China cheer muted as Deutsche Bank sets European nerves jangling

Big losses for Germany's biggest bank meant European markets started the week on a sour note on Monday as slightly better than expected Chinese data failed to dispel a general air of caution.

Deutsche Bank reported a surprise pre-tax loss of 1.15 billion euros for the fourth quarter of 2013 due to heavy costs for litigation, restructuring and balance sheet reduction.

The bank was originally scheduled to report its results on Jan. 29, but opted to release them early after the Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that a profit warning was possible.

Its shares opened down more than 5 percent, dragging down bank stocks across the region as Germany's Dax, down 0.3 percent, also led the region's list of losing bourses.

Liquidity was lacking with U.S. markets closed on Monday for a holiday. The Dow Jones index ended last week with a slim gain of 0.1 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.2 percent for the week.

In Asia, a majority of share markets in the region had stayed in the red last week, with Tokyo off 0.5 percent, Sydney 0.3 percent and Shanghai 0.5 percent, adding to a miserable few weeks.

China's annual economic growth slowed a tick to 7.7 percent last quarter, which was just ahead of market forecasts for 7.6 percent and at least countered fears that monetary tightening might have caused a sharper pullback.

"The economy may be a little more robust than people thought coming into 2014," said Tim Condon, an economist at ING Group in Singapore.

"I had thought the monetary tightening in 2013 would pose a downside risk. The numbers reduce that downside risk."

Other data out of China was much in line with forecasts, with retail sales growing 13.6 percent in December from a year earlier, while industrial output rose 9.7 percent.

That resilience was considered a positive for Australia, given that China is its single biggest export market, and helped the Australian dollar clamber off a three-year trough of $0.8756 to reach $0.8780.

Yet the Australian currency remains out of favour, having shed 2.4 percent last week due to disappointing domestic data and demand for U.S. dollars and yen.

The yen was in favour again on Monday as the general mood of risk aversion led speculators to cut back on short positions, which has been a very popular trade for months now.

The Bank of Japan holds its policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected to maintain its massive asset buying program.

The euro was particularly affected, dropping to a six-week low at one stage against both the dollar and the yen before steadying at $1.3545 and 141.03 yen respectively. The dollar eased to 104.11 yen from an early 104.32.

A sovereign rating upgrade for euro zone  bailout poster child Ireland helped ensure the recent rally in periphery debt rumbled on in debt markets, though Deutsche's troubles darkened the mood.

Source: Reuters